Naxos Classical Spotlight
Naxos Classical Spotlight explores the world of classical music. Along the way host Raymond Bisha shares the stories about the music, and the musicians who make it.
Episodes
Composer/poet Oscar Lorenzo Fernandez was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1897. He went on to become a leading figure in the development of Brazil's classical music scene, as a composer, conductor, musicologist, and a professor of harmony in the National Music Institute in Rio de Janeiro, as well as other in...
In this podcast Raymond Bisha talks with Julian Azkoul, Director of United Strings of Europe, about how the group started, about their album, and about how they started recording for BIS label at the invitation of their legendary founder and producer Robert von Bahr. It is hard to overstate how important Robert's unequivocal support was for the ensemble. All that, plus music by Osvaldo Golijov, Olli Mustonen, Dobrinka Tabakova an...
In Biber’s time, harmony was something cosmic, vibrating in a God-given resonance between human, instrumental, and celestial bodies. After all, the string instrument in early modern Europe was configured as a human body – with a neck, belly, and ribs to match....
“I feel that you will achieve your greatest triumphs in [the symphonic] genre for I consider you to have precisely the properties that make a great symphonic composer. This is my firm belief.” Thus wrote Jan Sibelius in 1914 to his former student Leevi Madetoja. Raymond Bisha presents supporting evidence for that foresight in extracts from Madetoja's First and Third Symphonies and the Okon Fuoko Suite performed by the Helsinki Phil...
The musical partnership of pianists Anna Geniushene and Lukas Geniušas, both esteemed prize-winners of major international competitions, is not just a testament to their flourishing solo careers and a shared musical heritage and philosophy. It is a profound expression of their deep emotional connection, a bond that resonates in their performances and captivates audiences world-wide. With their unique synergy, this hus...
Joby Talbot has written music for several of Christopher Wheeldon's ballets including The Winter's Tale, the focus of this podcast, as well as Like Water for Chocolate and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. In this podcast Joby talks about how he goes about composing music for a ballet and his ongoing collaboration with Christopher Wheeldon. The Opus Arte label has released all three of these ballets in a box set on both DVD and Bl...
This podcast introduces a recently released, diverse programme of works for guitar trio bound by the common thread of music inspired by stories from literature, stage or screen. Performed by the Volterra Project Trio, the album's seventeen tracks take us from the Read more
In his album liner notes Behzod Abduraimov writes: "I see this pairing as an opportunity to present two vastly different emotional and philosophical worlds within the same album. I want to offer listeners a striking contrast: the depth and complexity of Prokofiev’s world against Shor’s more lyrical and accessible approach. Each piece reflects different facets of the human experience, and I believe there is value in sharing this d...
In his later years, Liszt increasingly pursued his favoured causes by using piano transcriptions of other composers' works; and his own symphonic poems appeared as transcriptions from the 1850s. In 1865 Liszt famously complained to Hans von Bülow that “I have better things to do with my time than trans...
This project by Alon Sariel and the Kölner Akademie celebrates the versatility of the mandolin on the cusp of the classical period. However, the (hi)story of the mandolin in Vienna is surprisingly different from elsewhere in Europe, and in some cases we are still discovering new astonishing aspects. In contrast to the rest of Europe, Vienna seems to have almost completely ignored the popularity of the new Neapolitan m...
This podcast introduces two works by Karl Weigl (1881-1949), his Symphony No. 3 and the Symphonic Prelude to a Tragedy. Both were written at the beginning of the 1930s but then suffered from decades of neglect. Weigl drew on the sound world of late Romanticism, never abandoning this aesthetic in favour of more progressive contemporary trends. Happily, his distinctive style can now be savoured in these long-awaited world premiere re...
Ronald Stevenson was a virtuoso pianist as well as being a prolific composer and arranger whose music is featured on a new album with pianist Peter Jablonski. In this podcast Peter Jablonski talks about his recent album of some of Stevenson's works, especially his arrangements for the piano of music by composers such as Britten, Purcell, Paderewski, Mozart and Wagner. As Jablonski says in his interview, Ronald Stevenson was an ex...
Conductor John Jeter has been central to the rediscovery and representation of Florence Price's orchestral works. In this podcast, he discusses with Raymond Bisha his latest recording of her piano concerto and her two violin concertos, the only works she composed in the genre. The early First Violin Concerto, with shades of Tchaikovsky and undertones of the blues, stands in contrast to the Second, written shortly before her death, ...
Lepo Sumera (1950–2000) was one of the most important figures in Estonian music Read more
In this podcast Raymond Bisha introduces an album of sacred choral music by Philip Stopford in which all the items were composed between 2013 and 2022 and are heard in their world premiere recordings. Beautifully crafted, memorable, colourful and deeply rooted in the Anglican tradition, Stopford's works are immediately attractive and widely admired in the UK and in America.
Working amidst political and personal setbacks, Mieczysław Weinberg (1919-96) flourished as a composer, admired by Shostakovich and championed by the leading Soviet musicians of the day. His death in Moscow in 1996, however, went largely unnoticed. More happily, his extensive catalogue has recently secured an increa...
In this podcast Skip Sempé introduces his new album of music by John Dowland and talks about the Renaissance orchestra and why it creates such a unique and beautiful sound. According to Sempé: "The idea of a ‘Renaissance Orchestra’ in which all the different instrumental consorts are brought together is the overlooked message of these sixteenth- and seventeenth-century publications. Large ensembles, for important or commemorative ...
This podcast presents pianist Giorgio Koukl in conversation with Raymond Bisha at the end of a five-year project to rehabilitate the complete works for piano solo and duo by Vittorio Rieti (1898-1994). Virtually self-taught, Rieti went on to establish his composing credentials, becoming the only Italian composer, for e...
Vol. 27 in the Naxos Music of Brazil series features music by César Guerra-Peixe (1914-1993). In this podcast, Raymond Bisha discusses the life and music of the composer, known as the 'Brazilian Bartók' on account of his ethnomusicological research, with conductor Neil Thomson. Describing Guerra-Peixe as an “extremely prolific, incredibly rounded, complete musician”, Thomson also details how the Music of Brazil series got off the g...
Raymond Bisha introduces the latest instalment in the Capriccio label's exploration of rarely performed or recorded symphonic works by Miklós Rózsa, outlining his maturation not only into one of the most successful film composers of all time, but also the creator of equally fine concert works. The album's programme comprises his Rhapsody for Cello, in which the young composer found his true style; the Notturno Ungherese (“a nostalg...
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